


It's not the armor that makes the knight

by HogwartsToAlexandria



Series: Marie's Stony Shorts 2020 [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, Hurt No Comfort, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) is a Good Bro, M/M, Miscarriage, Protective Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, they're sad together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:06:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22449160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HogwartsToAlexandria/pseuds/HogwartsToAlexandria
Summary: Life is sometimes the meanest, most incomprehensible dealer of cruelty, and in those moments, there's only the arms of the person you love most to help you hold it together, or let go safely.Stony Bingo 2019/20 Fill, N5: Override Code
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Marie's Stony Shorts 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1649605
Comments: 4
Kudos: 73
Collections: Captain America/Iron Man Bingo





	It's not the armor that makes the knight

**Author's Note:**

> So... must have been in a sad mood I guess?  
> 4th fill for the Stony bingo hurts, sorry (or not 😏).
> 
> Betad by Betheflame as always ❤

"Anthony Edward Stark, open the doors or I swear I'm passing through with my fists." Steve shouts. It's not anger. It's despair. It's confusion and it's helplessness. 

Tony's been in his workshop, silent and pretending to be busy to everyone but Jarvis for most of the afternoon, and now Steve is worried. He's sure something happened. Tony's face wasn't its usual mask of cheerful and cheeky, or even focused and absent like Tony is when he's thinking hard about whatever project he's working on. No, it had been pinched, his smiles forced, his eyes either empty or immensely tired - depending on whether or not he was aware of Steve or any of their teammates watching him. 

"Tony!" Steve bangs his fist in the black glass doors. They rattle in place, but that's about it. Nothing happens, not a sound but his own breathing. 

"Captain if I may," J.A.R.V.I.S.'s voice interrupts Steve's racing thoughts, his quiet British accent grating on Steve’s nerves more than anything else just now. 

"What?"

"Sir's workshop is barred by his emergency protocol."

"I am  _ painfully  _ aware of that J, don't you think?" 

"I  _ think _ ," the A.I. pauses, "that  _ you  _ haven't thought of the only override code Mr. Stark put in place to lift said emergency protocol." 

Steve frowns. His head snapping up as his mouth drops open and he stares at the ceiling. 

"I thought that was a joke! It's not?" 

"It was not, in fact, a joke." J.A.R.V.I.S. assures him.

Steve almost jumps at the door before he remembers he actually has to say it. 

"J, activate Knight Oh My Knight protocol,  _ please _ ," he demands, his voice cracking at the edges, his eyes prickling with tears of tension as the doors finally woosh open without another word being spoken. 

Steve Rogers doesn’t run when he’s worried. He flies. Or something like that. He doesn’t think at least. The only thing on his mind right now, finding Tony, getting to the bottom of whatever is going on. Getting his heart broken- 

He finds Tony easily, huddled in a ball on the couch he keeps behind his favorite bench. The couch Steve has taken many a nap on and picked Tony from in the deep of sleep as well. His shoulders are jumping with sobs, his nose audibly running as he sniffs again and again and again. Steve is behind him, on his knees on the half carpet, half concrete floor and his hands reach for Tony’s back as if on reflex, shattered to see he was right.

Tony jumps under his touch when Steve reaches to his front, trying to get him to turn around, to look at him. He flinches until Steve’s hand draws back to his hip.

That’s when Steve’s mind provides him with new suspicions, a little voice that whispers sadly, no fight to it, just infinite love and a bone-deep disappointment, a sorrow he can almost touch for all that it’s seeping through his veins quickly.

“Tony,” Steve murmurs, his voice cracking, his breath shallow. “Tony, sweetheart, look at me, please.”

It takes another minute of Tony quietly crying in the cushion under his head, another minute where Steve’s own eyes gradually mist over, until Tony is turning around clumsily, and Steve’s tears join Tony’s. He doesn’t need to hear him say it. But Tony needs to voice the pain, his voice hardly a whisper and yet a shout, “I lost it, I lost the baby.” 

Tony falls down the couch and into Steve’s lap, the two of them drowning in tears that aren’t their own, casting lines for strengths that evade them, grasping at straws that take the form of Steve’s hair, and Tony’s back, Steve’s shoulders. With Tony’s legs wound around his waist and their torsos stuck to one another, they sob down each other’s ears and let the day wheel away, indifferent and without hope just yet. They’ve been trying, this isn’t the first time, just the one they’d had the most luck with so far. They’ll get up again, but not just now. 

**Author's Note:**

> Next up _more angst_ but different.


End file.
